UPDATE: 12/20/07 -- The First Amendment is in danger after NY State's highest court failed to protect American authorsfrom libel judgments awarded by foreign courts.

This documentary short film, produced by the Moving Picture Institute, shows how Saudi billionaire Khalid Bin Mafhouz exploits the British legal system and sues for libel whenever he is the subject of a terrorism accusation.

Directed by MPI fellow Jared Lapidus, the film explains how Mahfouz filed a libel suit against Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed -- and How to Stop It. The suit was not filed in the United States, where the book was published and sold, but instead in London, where Mahfouz associates ordered 23 copies online. The judge ordered all copies of the book pulped, and ordered Ehrenfeld to pay the legal fees and damages, despite the fact that nothing in her book about Saudi funding of terrorism was ever disproved.

Ehrenfeld, however, is fighting back. In The Libel Tourist she speaks about her shocking experience of modern-day book burning by British courts, and the First Amendment lawsuit she filed against Mahfouz. Unfortunately, on December 20, 2007, NY State Court of Appeals sidestepped the First Amendment rights and protections.

Learn more about the case at www.LibelTouristMovie.com and at www.acdemocracy.orgLearn more about MPI at www.thempi.org